According to one study, a significant 45 percent of students use Google as their first place to begin their academic research [[i]]. Arguably, the percentage of students who first turn to Google to find their government documents is even higher. If true, some good news is that Google Coop [[ii]], a custom search engine (CSE) toolkit, provides a solution for those who wish to tap into Google in order to locate online government documents more easily. In general, the Google CSE works by allowing a user to seed the search engine with pre-specified URLs pertaining to a certain topic, and by allowing some cosmetic changes to the results screen, while keeping Google’s underlying search algorithm intact. Anyone with knowledge of a particular field can now create their own Google CSE to search a topical subset of the Internet [[iii]].

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According to one study, a significant 45 percent of students use Google as their first place to begin their academic research {{ref|Griffiths}}. Arguably, the percentage of students who first turn to Google to find their government documents is even higher. If true, some good news is that Google Coop {{ref|Google}}, a custom search engine (CSE) toolkit, provides a solution for those who wish to tap into Google in order to locate online government documents more easily. In general, the Google CSE works by allowing a user to seed the search engine with pre-specified URLs pertaining to a certain topic, and by allowing some cosmetic changes to the results screen, while keeping Google’s underlying search algorithm intact. Anyone with knowledge of a particular field can now create their own Google CSE to search a topical subset of the Internet {{ref|Examples}}.

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Google itself was the first to demonstrate its own ability to search government documents exclusively when it created the Google U.S. Government Search [[iv]]. When Google’s CSE toolkit was made public, David Oldenkamp of Indiana University was the first to customize Google for government documents by creating the IGO Web Search [[v]]. After seeing the IGO Web Search, I realized that I, too, could use the Google CSE to create a search engine for Canadian government publications that might help to mitigate some of the headaches in finding online documents [[vi]].

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Google itself was the first to demonstrate its own ability to search government documents exclusively when it created the Google U.S. Government Search {{ref|USA}}. When Google’s CSE toolkit was made public, David Oldenkamp of Indiana University was the first to customize Google for government documents by creating the IGO Web Search {{ref|Oldenkamp}}. After seeing the IGO Web Search, I realized that I, too, could use the Google CSE to create a search engine for Canadian government publications {{ref|Sharp}}that might help to mitigate some of the headaches in finding online documents.

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The Canadian Government Publications on the Web (CGPW) search engine,viseeded with over 135 URLs from all three levels of Canadian government, was initially created in late 2006 to aid in the discovery of online documents. For years, one could rely on the proprietary Canadian Research Index (CRI) to track down the nation’s most vital documents [[vii]]. However, since the CRI database has largely remained a tool for finding print or microfiche items, while documents have overwhelmingly migrated online (sometimes exclusively so) there was a genuine need in Canada for what the CGPW search engine could accomplish.

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The Canadian Government Publications on the Web (CGPW) search engine,viseeded with over 135 URLs from all three levels of Canadian government, was initially created in late 2006 to aid in the discovery of online documents. For years, one could rely on the proprietary Canadian Research Index (CRI) to track down the nation’s most vital documents {{ref|CRI}}. However, since the CRI database has largely remained a tool for finding print or microfiche items, while documents have overwhelmingly migrated online (sometimes exclusively so) there was a genuine need in Canada for what the CGPW search engine could accomplish.

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Initial feedback on the CGPW search engine has been positive [[viii]]. Librarians and students alike have appreciated the ability to search the Internet across all levels of Canadian government jurisdictions by subject and topic matter. Students in particular appreciate the familiarity of the Google brand. As a budding Web 2.0 tool, the strength of the Google CSE lies not only in the ability to let each individual user decide what slice of the Google universe to search, but also as a tool that allows the user to work collaboratively in seeding and maintaining the search engine. Creators can invite other experts in the field to share in the maintenance of the search engine and, ultimately, this is where the future of the CGPW search engine lies. Everyone in my department has administrative access to CGPW search engine in order to update or add new URLs. Ultimately, the goal is to extend administrative privileges to all document librarians who are interested, thereby drawing on the experience and expertise of my peers to ensure that the CGPW search engine is the most robust, accurate and sustainable one possible.

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Initial feedback on the CGPW search engine has been positive {{ref|Feedbak}}. Librarians and students alike have appreciated the ability to search the Internet across all levels of Canadian government jurisdictions by subject and topic matter. Students in particular appreciate the familiarity of the Google brand. As a budding Web 2.0 tool, the strength of the Google CSE lies not only in the ability to let each individual user decide what slice of the Google universe to search, but also as a tool that allows the user to work collaboratively in seeding and maintaining the search engine. Creators can invite other experts in the field to share in the maintenance of the search engine and, ultimately, this is where the future of the CGPW search engine lies. Everyone in my department has administrative access to CGPW search engine in order to update or add new URLs. Ultimately, the goal is to extend administrative privileges to all document librarians who are interested, thereby drawing on the experience and expertise of my peers to ensure that the CGPW search engine is the most robust, accurate and sustainable one possible.

[[vi]] Canadian Government Documents. Available at: [http://www.library.carleton.ca/madgic/docs/index.html]

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{{note|Sharp}}Canadian Government Documents. Available at: [http://www.library.carleton.ca/madgic/docs/index.html]

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[[vii]] Canadian Research Index. Available at: [http://www.il.proquest.com/products_pq/descriptions/canadian_research.shtml]

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{{note|CRI}}Canadian Research Index. Available at: [http://www.il.proquest.com/products_pq/descriptions/canadian_research.shtml]

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[[viii]] Positive feedback has been received from librarians coast to coast, from the University of British Columbia, the University of Ottawa, to Memorial University in Newfoundland, after word was spread through the Canadian Library Association's interest group blog entitled Access to Government Information. Available at: [http://agiig.wordpress.com/page/3/]. As of June 12, 2008, the search engine has been used over 10,200 times.

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{{note|Feedback}}Positive feedback has been received from librarians coast to coast, from the University of British Columbia, the University of Ottawa, to Memorial University in Newfoundland, after word was spread through the Canadian Library Association's interest group blog entitled Access to Government Information. Available at: [http://agiig.wordpress.com/page/3/]. As of June 12, 2008, the search engine has been used over 10,200 times.

Delicious Government Documents

James R. Jacobs, International Documents Librarian, Stanford University

Text

Since the advent of the Internet, many librarians have been collecting Web sites and digital documents of interest to their communities and have designed various ways of providing access through their online catalogs, pathfinders, and subject guides. Until now, this has been a time-consuming Sisyphean effort with no easy way of sharing the information with colleagues much less alerting their communities to their existence.

Web2.0 services are now changing this landscape. One example of a popular Web2.0 service is Del.icio.us, a free online social bookmarking service where users store and share their bookmarks on the Web rather than on their own computers. The service allows users to describe sites of interest – the terms “tag” or “tagging” are used in del.icio.us parlance – organize collections of sites, share favorite sites with others known and unknown, discover sites that others have saved, and display saved sites dynamically on Web sites (called tag- or link rolls). The success of del.icio.us lies in its simplicity and unparalleled social capabilities. This article describes how del.icio.us and other social bookmarking Web services work, gives step-by-step instructions, and demonstrates through a case study of the Free Government Information Web site how librarians can leverage these services to build, manage, and provide better access to Web collections.

Why del.icio.us?

Del.icio.us is primarily meant for individual users to save the sites that interest them. However, the reason del.icio.us is an interesting tool for librarians is that it gives librarians a quick and easy way to collaboratively and dynamically build portals of Web resources that heretofore were done individually and statically. The goal of every library is to collect information of interest to their community. With more and more information going online, it is imperative that librarians find ways to collect and give access to that information. Del.icio.us is but one tool to do this. We can import data from del.icio.us to create dynamically generated subject guides or Web pages. This video from the 2007 code4lib conference describes a quick and easy way to do this.

On FGI, we're using del.icio.us in this way as a proof of concept to what's possible. FGI volunteers are collaboratively tagging sites of interest by sharing the del.icio.us account freegovinfo. On our del.icio.us page we've got 2 bits of javascript that we got directly from del.icio.us -- Tag roll code to display a cloud (or weighted visual display) of del.icio.us tags on the site, and link roll code to display a list of bookmarks on the site. Not only can we can quickly and dynamically expand our collection of Web sites, but we can also allow our users to participate by submitting Web site suggestions using the tag for:freegovinfo.

Conclusion

Finding Web sites of interest is part and parcel of a librarian's daily work. By using del.icio.us and other Web2.0 services, we can collect Web sites and repurpose/reuse that information in order to provide better access and services to our user communities.

Social bookmarking sites

Here are some other sites that use social tagging to drive their services:

Articles and Web sites about social tagging and delicious

Google CSE and Canadian Government Publications

David Sharp, Government Documents Librarian, Carleton University

Text

According to one study, a significant 45 percent of students use Google as their first place to begin their academic research Template:Ref. Arguably, the percentage of students who first turn to Google to find their government documents is even higher. If true, some good news is that Google Coop Template:Ref, a custom search engine (CSE) toolkit, provides a solution for those who wish to tap into Google in order to locate online government documents more easily. In general, the Google CSE works by allowing a user to seed the search engine with pre-specified URLs pertaining to a certain topic, and by allowing some cosmetic changes to the results screen, while keeping Google’s underlying search algorithm intact. Anyone with knowledge of a particular field can now create their own Google CSE to search a topical subset of the Internet Template:Ref.

Google itself was the first to demonstrate its own ability to search government documents exclusively when it created the Google U.S. Government Search Template:Ref. When Google’s CSE toolkit was made public, David Oldenkamp of Indiana University was the first to customize Google for government documents by creating the IGO Web Search Template:Ref. After seeing the IGO Web Search, I realized that I, too, could use the Google CSE to create a search engine for Canadian government publications Template:Refthat might help to mitigate some of the headaches in finding online documents.

The Canadian Government Publications on the Web (CGPW) search engine,viseeded with over 135 URLs from all three levels of Canadian government, was initially created in late 2006 to aid in the discovery of online documents. For years, one could rely on the proprietary Canadian Research Index (CRI) to track down the nation’s most vital documents Template:Ref. However, since the CRI database has largely remained a tool for finding print or microfiche items, while documents have overwhelmingly migrated online (sometimes exclusively so) there was a genuine need in Canada for what the CGPW search engine could accomplish.

Initial feedback on the CGPW search engine has been positive Template:Ref. Librarians and students alike have appreciated the ability to search the Internet across all levels of Canadian government jurisdictions by subject and topic matter. Students in particular appreciate the familiarity of the Google brand. As a budding Web 2.0 tool, the strength of the Google CSE lies not only in the ability to let each individual user decide what slice of the Google universe to search, but also as a tool that allows the user to work collaboratively in seeding and maintaining the search engine. Creators can invite other experts in the field to share in the maintenance of the search engine and, ultimately, this is where the future of the CGPW search engine lies. Everyone in my department has administrative access to CGPW search engine in order to update or add new URLs. Ultimately, the goal is to extend administrative privileges to all document librarians who are interested, thereby drawing on the experience and expertise of my peers to ensure that the CGPW search engine is the most robust, accurate and sustainable one possible.

Notes

Template:NoteGriffiths, Jillian R. and Peter Brophy. “Student Searching Behaviour and the Web: Use of Academic Resources and Google.” Library Trends Spring 53.4 (Spring 2005): 539-54.
Template:NoteGoogle Co-op. Available at: [1]Template:RefGoogle keeps a page of featured examples. Available at: [2]Template:NoteGoogle U.S. Government Search. Available at: [3]Template:NoteDavid Oldenkamp’s IGO Web Search. Available at: [4]Template:NoteCanadian Government Documents. Available at: [5]Template:NoteCanadian Research Index. Available at: [6]Template:NotePositive feedback has been received from librarians coast to coast, from the University of British Columbia, the University of Ottawa, to Memorial University in Newfoundland, after word was spread through the Canadian Library Association's interest group blog entitled Access to Government Information. Available at: [7]. As of June 12, 2008, the search engine has been used over 10,200 times.